The ERFSA grant awards are designed to support tenured-track faculty, lecturers, and staff with less than five years of employment at Cal Poly Humboldt. These awards celebrate ERFSA’s ongoing commitment to fostering professional growth, scholarly achievement, and innovative work of our early-career colleagues whose projects reflect the creativity, dedication, and impact they bring to Cal Poly Humboldt and the wider community. We are deeply grateful to all who have contributed to making these opportunities a reality.
This year’s recipients are:
Leila Azimian, lecturer, School of Engineering. Project: To design and build a mobile/portable Photobioreactor (Aquarium of Microalgae) in the shape of a patio umbrella to bridge the gap between industrial bioprocessing and biophilic interior design. It will allow students a unique opportunity to participate as “co-researchers” monitoring real-time data from PBR.
Larisa Callaway-Cole, assistant professor, Department of Child Development. Project: To attend the 2027 U.S. Professor/Student Study through Reggio Children, the host organization for school tours in Reggio Emilia, Italy, to collaborate with other institutions that have established study abroad experiences for undergraduate students in the infant/toddler and preschools in pursuit of Cal Poly Humboldt’s study abroad program: blending theory and practice in Reggio Emilia, Italy.
Justin N. Carlson, lecturer and research associate, Department of Anthropology. Project: To research the Gradishte archaeological site in Crnobuki, North Macedonia, for archaeological micromorphology and magnetic susceptibility analyses; to publish with colleagues working on the Macedonia Archaeological Research Program; and to work with students to learn about geoarchaeology.
Alana Chin, assistant professor, Department of Biological Sciences. Project: To attend the Canopy Research Tree Week at Tree Climbing Planet to learn canopy access techniques as well as rescue, so she will be able to better train students and potentially build a climbing program.
Regina A. Jorgenson, assistant professor, Department of Physics & Astronomy. Project: To upgrade Humboldt’s Fickle Hill Observatory facilities to include spectroscopy—a full-scale research telescope that is accessible to both students and outreach/education public groups.
Gabrielle (Gabi) Kirk, assistant professor, Department of Geography, Environment & Spatial Analysis. Project: To attend the Antipode’s Institute for the Geographies of Justice’s highly competitive international workshop at the University of Toronto. The institute is specifically for early-career human geography scholars to build a scholarly community and to receive feedback on the draft of her book, “Cultivating Sustainable Sovereignty: Palestinian Agrarian Lives in Transnational Focus.”
Jasper Leavitt, postdoctoral scholar and lecturer, Department of Biological Sciences. Project: To grow bacteria from already collected egg fluid from the northwestern salamander, isolate visually distinct colonies, extract DNA from the isolates, and send the DNA out for Sanger sequencing to create a library of amphibian egg-associated bacteria, providing tools to run future experiments with controlled microbiomes.
Richard (Ricky) Robles, graphic designer, Marketing & Communications. Project: To obtain structured motion design training and the purchase of a dedicated digital illustration device, which will be housed within the Creative Service office in the Marketing & Communications department. He will expand the range, flexibility, and consistency of visual communication produced for recruitment, marketing, and institutional storytelling.
James S Woodhead, Studio Art technician, Department of Art + Film. Project: To build “Ruthie Two-thie,” a proposed child sculpture waving hello to folks to accompany “Ruthie” (the Ruth Lake mascot who represents the Humboldt Trinity Recreation Alliance (HTRA)) for the 31st Annual Ruth Lake Summer Festival. Joint project with HTRA and the Art + Film Department.
Newly retired Cal Poly Humboldt faculty and staff are encouraged to join ERFSA. More information can be found at erfsa.humboldt.edu.